Vasuki
The planet closest to the sun, Vasuki is a lot like the Sol system's planet Venus, only it's closer in size to Mercury. A tiny little planet wrapped in clouds so thick that they cannot be seen through on either side. Under these clouds is an oppressive atmosphere that's only barely breathable, so thick you can feel it. It wouldn't be liveable at all without the massive shield that covers the half of the planet facing the sun from orbit; the Muldoon Plate is the only reason it's not a great baking rock. Before the Federation fell apart, Vasuki and the Plate were an experiment in terraforming, one of several thousand meant to expand terraforming operations and see if they couldn't colonize even more worlds than they already had. Vasuki was almost too ambitious for its own good, and officially the project ended up being abandoned shortly after they had successfully produced an atmosphere. As far as the general public knew, it was just too costly to keep trying to develop it; only plants that can grow without the sun can survive on Vasuki, the clouds prevent the Plate from projecting much artificial sunlight. And of those plants, only the hardiest can survive the grueling atmospheric conditions. What only a select few knew was that the Federation didn't abandon the project, there was far too much money tied up into it to do that. Instead they turned it into another project entirely, using the near-perfect cover provided by the clouds to construct one of the largest military bases in human history. Meun Bito Omicron was a sprawling metropolis, built not only above but several miles below ground. It was never fully finished, but the remaining tidbits of the original plans for it suggest that if it ever had been, it could have provided enough living space and industrial support to arm and send out upwards of a billion soldiers. But the workers and engineers dug too deep, some say too greedily, and inadvertently opened a Pandora's Box-load of horrors bound in ancient times that have made Meun unliveable. The devastation came in four great Plagues, two of which still linger and scour the planet's surface in search of victims. The first plague was a terrible disease, never before seen by the mortal races. A horrid miasma wafted up from below the ground and spread far and wide, reaching to the tops of the tallest buildings and treeshrooms. It spread through every imaginable means, infected everything it could touch. Higher animals, lower animals, magical beasts, even aberrations weren't immune. Breathing it in, letting it touch the skin, coming into contact with anyone or anything that was infected, drinking tainted water. Only the most perfectly sealed suits and vehicles with their own oxygen supplies were safe, no filter could keep the stuff out. Anyone who became infected became a walking plague factory, their organs painfully twisted by the sickness to produce tainted fluids that would escape the body through painful spores that grew on the flesh and carapace, and later burst to expel gas. The worst part of the disease was the pain, the victim would be constantly wracked by it but the illness would never kill them. If anything it worked to keep them alive and heighten their sensitivity, actively trying to make them suffer until they finally expired from system shock. Even the most potent of painkillers did nothing to dull their agony and eventual deaths. Those who died to this nameless plague were considered the lucky ones. When the miasma finally faded away, or dissipated, or whatever it did, the whole planet was immediately beset by incredible tectonic movements. Earthquakes that would last for hours were accompanied by hurricanes, tornados, and fierce ion storms that wreaked untold havoc across the entire planet. Torrential rainstorms flooded huge chunks of the landscape, creating scalding hot seas and lakes of nitrogen-rich water that boils with frightening explosive potential even now. Such disasters would cut off all ability to escape or communicate with the outside universe, killing not only the millions of still-living people trapped on the surface but most of the search and rescue teams that came to try and find and evacuate them. Things didn't really get much better from there. After the planet stopped trying to shake the survivors off like a bad case of fleas, the real violence began. Those dead who had not yet been cremated began to rise as flesh-hungry ghouls. Robotic workers and defensive units went haywire and began firing on anyone and anything close by. Magical beasts of incredible size and terrible power burst forth from the ground and laid waste to all in their path. And to top it all off, a volcano appeared on the far side of the world and birthed the monstrous Suzaku; a massive phoenix of such near god-like power that it seemed invulnerable, torching everything in sight and feasting on the ashen remains. Though most of the greater monstrosities have died off or been slain by now, Suzaku is still the undisputed ruler of Vasuki's surface, flying lazily across the shattered remains of Meun Bito, ever hunting for more of its favorite food- people. But he's not that picky, he'll just as readily eat any other organic thing he can turn into a smouldering heap. The final plague, known as the Unwinding, finished off what paltry thousands had somehow managed to survive Vasuki's devastation. The sequestered holdouts became afflicted with a strange supernatural curse, which made them devolve and mutate significantly, twisting them into dumb, monstrous creatures with little intellect or sense of self. If anyone survived that plague, then their lives were almost assuredly short and violent affairs, doomed to either be eaten by those who had once been their friends and comrades, or exterminated by the other monstrosities let loose across the world. Nothing now remains of the Federation, or the poor fools who were sent to their deaths. Vasuki is now a world so befouled, blighted, and scorched that many consider it the closest thing one can get to Hell in Realspace. The NEF Worlds Back to Main Page